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Tuesday, May 29, 2012

So this blog was initially for friends and family, to keep touch while we live far away. But I check my stats every now and then, and apparently tt's gotten into the hands of some other folks too. Oh well, I guess that's probably a good thing. Welcome folks! Hope you enjoy!

Monday, May 28, 2012

BEFORE YOU READ, MAKE SURE YOU'RE OKAY WITH NUDITY, BECAUSE THERE IS SOME IN THIS POST.

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In the middle of our little jaunt to Joao Pessoa, we headed over to a nearby beach. Nudey beach. Haha, yes, we went to a nudey beach. Half was clothing, the other half was no clothing, with a really neat natural divider (rocks and trees and stuff). You guys can leave it to your imaginations whether we stayed on the clothed side or ventured into the nude.

A little more, when we first moved here we heard camping wasn't really done much here. And I think that's mostly right. But we saw our first camp ground at this beach. It was all very comfy looking, because the rocks made these nice little coves. We might be headed back there some day for some nude surfing, nude paddleball, nude camping (just kidding, you have to wear clothes at the campground, or at least we think). And all of that stuff you can do clothed too. Just funny to think of it all nakie.

The clothed beach. Look at that palm tree hanging out on that rock, neat!

OOooooOOoh, headed in?

By the way, this is our car. We bought a Volkswagon Gol (just like the american VW Golf).

The coastline of Tambaba, which as you head up has lots of really great private beaches, and camping!

Bahahaha!!! I don't know why the guy was so timid and covered himself up, because apparently the woman was all for showing everything!

Friday, May 25, 2012

You pronounce that like "dang!", or at least that's how I've been saying it. This week I received a gift from a mosquito: Dengue Fever. It's a little tropical virus, not too bad in most cases. Mine was mostly like the flu, I spent about four days in bed, but with lots of muscle aches and the kind of headaches where it hurts to turn your eyes. I have a great rash all over my body, and am pretty sure I'm now in the recuperation phase, and have an itchy sensation all over. The rash actually was quite pretty, I thought. It added a little pattern to my skin. How nice!

I just thought I'd let you guys know where I was this week. I was asleep.

Tuesday, May 22, 2012

On the road we stopped at a gas station and we got popsicles. Whenever I see something that I think I might not be able to find in the states, I like to give it a try.
This time I saw a corn flavored popsicle. I thought I knew what it would taste like, and I was pretty much right. It was a lot like creamed corn. And I like creamed corn, so it was a pretty tasty treat. If you see one in the states, go ahead and try it. It's not like buttered corn on the cob flavored. It's good.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Okay guys, a little personal plug here. I've been illustrating a children's book with a friend from Atlanta. Well we've finished and she's finally been published and is for sale here at Barnes and Noble and here at Amazon.com!

Here's a rundown and a few pictures:

Bean to Bar... to Book! Join a charming little girl named Coco as she goes on a magical journey to discover how chocolate is made. Guided by the gentle, loving hand of her favorite chocolate maker, Coco learns the sweet secrets to confection perfection.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Every three years or so I cut my hair and donate to whatever organization says they'll do their best to provide reasonably priced natural hair wigs for children with cancer. When we moved here it was about time, but not quite. The other night I told Toby that I thought next time we go back to the states I'd get it cut, and his answer was: Why don't I cut it? So I let Toby cut my hair. He did the big chopping and a little straightening out in the back, but I did most of the front. It looks pretty good! I've had three people cut my hair for donation, and so far only one has been a professional. But the amateurs do a pretty good job too.

Then, the next day Toby said he wanted to cut his hair too. We went with a mohawk at first, but now it's just a normal buzz cut. We are both much cooler without all that hair heating up our heads.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Okay, another reef post, but this time, not our home reef! We took a day trip this weekend to Porto de Galinhas (Port of Chickens, named for the crates of chickens that were used to disguise slave ships coming from Africa. Cute name, right?). It has a really great restoration/protection program, which I really enjoyed. There are sectioned areas that you're not allowed to walk on or swim near (we accidentally snorkeled through one, it had some amazing fish and coral), and visitors are only allowed on the reef for 30 minute incriments. It's a really touristy place, so all these rules are there for good reason. They also make you watch an informative video and they have what they're calling an 'eco blitz' (okay, I forget the first word, but it was probably in portuguese anyway. Something like a nature blitz?) and they were giving away a free seed from a native tree for people to plant. I grabbed the wrong thing. But the thing I grabbed was a pamphlet printed on biodegradable paper. So what I'm trying to say is that Brazil does a lot of things really oddly (littering is common because people believe they're creating jobs), but this is one thing they're doing right.

As far as the reef goes, it's got pretty much the same stuff as ours. I believe our will be completely barren in a few years if they don't do something to protect it. We saw more fish, but I think that's partially because the water is much clearer. It was a rainy day, so visibility still wasn't as good as it could be. There are little tidal pools where you can feed the fish (the rule makers specifically say not to do that, but they sell food at the shore).

One more thing, in my Brazil guide book this is one of the hot spots, so I read before we went. They said you can get a 'local fisherman' to take you to the tidal pools by boat for a mere $15. We walked on to the beach and the kid 'helping' us said, yeah, take the boat. We asked him where the pools were. He said, right there. Literally about 40 feet away. the boat ride would have been maybe 2 minutes. With probably 1.5 minutes of loading and unloading. We risked it and snorkeled there. Which turned out to be great because we saw the best stuff on our snorkel out. All 40 feet of it.

Boats in the background? They dropping off. Boats in foreground and picking up passengers.

The fish were actually really vibrant. Almost all of them. The picture doesn't do this guy justice!

Feeding the fish. Against the rules. But in Brazil, what are rules anyway?

I was super proud of getting this half-in-water/half-out-of-water picture. Skills!

Monday, May 7, 2012

I'm not exactly sure what this website is for, but my guess is tourism? I thought the '?' on the menu would take me to a different page with an explanation, but it did not. Anyway, if you're ever thinking about coming down here, this website should solidify your decision. It shows some of the really amazingly beautiful parts of the city. Most of them we haven't been to, but a lot we have. Don't worry, if you come visit we'll show you everything, good and bad. CLICK HERE for the website. It starts you at Mark Zero, which is in a really cool part of Recife.

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Before we moved here I thought I would build a garden on top of our parking garage. From the googlemap view it looked like a nice flat surface that if people let me, I could build a sweet rooftop garden on. But now that I've looked at it I know it's not a good place for a garden. So for now I have a teeny weeny porch garden going. We haven't figured out a lot of things, gardening is one of them. I bought some fresh black eyed peas from the grocery store (produce here is the best!) and planted a few, just to see if they'd grow. They did. Yippee! And the mint I bought from the store for like USD$1 is growing like a weed! What's that you say? Mint is a weed? I knew that, it was a joke. Here are some pictures.

Oh, and I labeled the house. The next post will have some pictures of that.

Like those TP tube planters? On the right tomato volunteers from compost with two papaya seedlings in the middle. I can't decide which to pull out, and which to let grow. The three on the right are black eyed peas.